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FUTURE TENSE for Monday, February 23, 2004
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PENTAGON PONDERS SPACE WEAPONS

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The United States wants to develop new weapons technologies that go beyond the
never-realized "Star Wars" defense system proposal. In a recent story for Wired News,
Noah Shachtman reports on a recent planning document (PDF) from the U.S. Air Force that
shows how the United States plans to step up the militarization of space.

SHACHTMAN: The military has been using satellites for years, but there seems to be a
shift to the thought of putting weapons in space. The idea is that our satellites our
so important to our military, so precious, that we've got to have weapons up there to
protect them. Now what some in the defense community are saying is that these weapons
themselves will become targets for other countries, and therefore it will make it more
likely that other countries will develop weapons of their own in space. And that also
it'll just create a climate of instability. By breaking a taboo you might start an arms
race up in orbit, and I don't think anybody wants to see that.

GORDON: What kind of weapons is the U.S. talking about?

SHACHTMAN: There are a couple of different things. The is denying other countries
access to space, or to be able to knock down their satellites. So that could be
anything from sending radio frequency impulses to actual lasers or missiles that might
knock down enemy satellites.

GORDON: Is this fanciful technology or something we're developing and might actually
get?

SHACHTMAN: It's certainly not about to happen tomorrow. There is a range of
technologies being discussed, from the extremely fanciful like sending giant metal rods
from orbit crashing down onto earth, to stuff that's a lot more likely which is just
crashing one thing into another to stop a satellite from being launched or knock it
from orbit.

GORDON: Do these weapons look primarily defensive or offensive?

SHACHTMAN: They talk about them in defensive terms: protecting our assets in space, and
making sure other countries can't deny us the use of space. But some of them have an
offensive bent in that they're meant to cripple opponents' satellites. There doesn't
seem to be a whole lot of talk, except for that one crazy metal rod program I told you
about, about positioning weapons in space that could then strike the earth. It seems to
be much more about guaranteeing that we're the ones who run space, and that no other
country can really have many assets up there.

GORDON: How much weight does a report from the Air Force carry in setting American
policy?

SHACHTMAN: I was able to track down the funding for several of the space weapons
program mentioned in the report, and it's not insignificant money: $60 or 70 million
in this year alone for each of several different programs. Does this mean the U.S. is
going to be putting weapons in space tomorrow? No, it doesn't, and I don't want to
give that impression. But planning and research for it really seems to be on the up
tick.


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AROUND THE WEB
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Sun Co-Founder Defends Offshoring
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Downsizing Raises Risk Of Death In Workers
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Until tomorrow,

Jon Gordon


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